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12 months my ass. I'm a pessimist, and they're going to have to sneak up and kill me,just like you. Pushing 50 and most of my generation is a little bit slow, the ones that follow are even worse. Hell, I've got a 19 year old step son who's had every opportunity given to him and he still can't manage to even run a microwave. I just finished cleaning up the chick filet bag he lit on fire trying to heat up the sandwich inside, still in the foil wrapper.

He actually told me the other day how good his generation was at combat and how they would take over if the shtf. You wouldn't believe the experience you get from playing call of duty. Sadly he was actually serious. I figure if you can keep your head down through the first winter or 6 months most of the stupid will take care of its self. Most have no idea what to do day to day now if they can't look it up on their phone.

Personally I'll feel safer if things fall apart than I do now. I giggle a little everytime I think about introducing a group of snowflakes caltrops.

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Everyone has a plan until they get punched in the mouth.

You can tell it's real because it looks so fake.
Elon Musk February 7, 2018

12 months my ass. I'm a pessimist, and they're going to have to sneak up and kill me,just like you. Pushing 50 and most of my generation is a little bit slow, the ones that follow are even worse. Hell, I've got a 19 year old step son who's had every opportunity given to him and he still can't manage to even run a microwave. I just finished cleaning up the chick filet bag he lit on fire trying to heat up the sandwich inside, still in the foil wrapper.

He actually told me the other day how good his generation was at combat and how they would take over if the shtf. You wouldn't believe the experience you get from playing call of duty. Sadly he was actually serious. I figure if you can keep your head down through the first winter or 6 months most of the stupid will take care of its self. Most have no idea what to do day to day now if they can't look it up on their phone.

Personally I'll feel safer if things fall apart than I do now. I giggle a little every time I think about introducing a group of snowflakes caltrops.

Call of duty!

I needed a good laugh today and between this belief he has in cod and burning the box the burger came in, just priceless, as homer would say!!!!!

Every time I'm around one of "these" types that know everything, from playing computer games, out comes the Glock in 357Sig and I ask them to pull out their ear plugs and or head phones, hold onto their rifle, and then I watch their little faces as I empty the mag.

That always gets the message across quickly, well in most of them, and has the added benefit of not having to talk with them for rest of the session.

One of wife's nephews was at funeral last week. Did two tours in Afganistan as a forward observer calling in artillery and close air support. Noticed I was packing as I noted he was. Odd thing was military funeral with honors for WW2 veteran and were Korea, Vietnam, Desert Storm and veterans through kids still on inactive reserve. 1/4 of the men were packing and three of about thirty wearing covert armor. Nephew in law says he can't sleep, take shower or sit on sofa without gun in reach. After the funeral he was checking out the pair of new builds (tested, tuned and sighted) of piston drive 6.8 pistols and had me send him a parts list to build a 10.5" version of the Noveske/Superlative Arms/KAC build. Since I can't build him one he is going to pay one dollar and trade replacement parts (minus a lower) for mine. Thus selling a pistol built for myself to a relative and do a 4473 with background so no laws bent. Heart was warmed to see so many folk living in reality.

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A time will come when people will not listen to accurate teachings. Instead, they will follow their own desires and surround themselves with teachers who tell them what they want to hear. 2 Timothy 4:3 G.W.T.
"If it is worth doing once...it's worth doing it a few more times to get it right." Stimpsonjcat

Been a lot of discussion on this topic in DC. North Korea is trying to pull away from China. The Iranian/Russian dealings have folks nervous since that is where the little ones went (need to refresh the pit but that may have been done in NK already). Look at the Mexico election. Don't think for one microsecond there aren't interested third parties. Just FYI and read between the lines.https://www.washingtontimes.com/news...-korea-summit/

I was thinking, Iran appears to be ready to start trouble now, a withdrawl from the nuke treaty could give them an excuse to attack Israel, strikes on Israel could escalate into a wider ME war, NK is allied with Iran (and Russia and China) and might want to join in, which would be a good time for a sucker punch to the US. Iran and Russia have not responded to attacks in Syria, they may be waiting for an opportunity or a distraction.

Had someone in business of knowing told me similar to Russia's inability to float a carrier group, closing some of their larger submarine bases due to lack of boats, strategic bombers that won't fly and first line fighters out of commission that if they have the command likely half the ICBM's wouldn't launch and reach destination both discounting our ability to destroy much of what flies. These are complicated aging systems in a country that is broke and challenged on all fronts. I worry more about random devices smuggled across Mexican border than "assured mutual destruction". Believe the Israelis will stay on top of their threats and be fast on the trigger if feels an imminent threat.

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A time will come when people will not listen to accurate teachings. Instead, they will follow their own desires and surround themselves with teachers who tell them what they want to hear. 2 Timothy 4:3 G.W.T.
"If it is worth doing once...it's worth doing it a few more times to get it right." Stimpsonjcat

The US is like a giant with a glass jaw, one hit in the right place and we are done. It is ironic, with all that has been spent on the military and weapons, one backwater nation can take us out with 1 relatively small EMP nuke. In any nuke attack the US would have to destroy every single incoming warhead, we would have to be right 100% of the time, an enemy needs only 1 to get through, they need to be right only 1% of the time.

That is the issue. China and Russia have invested in fewer but new technology to evade interception. Russia especially has let the old systems rot (as Huey pointed out) and focused on new warheads so each missile carries multiple warheads which can detect interceptors and move to avoid interception and deploy decoys. The hypersonics are also interesting because they can take out critical infrastucture without nukes. Where the hypersonics are deployed is very interesting. You saw the TU-95 interception yesterday. What if ......

The US is like a giant with a glass jaw, one hit in the right place and we are done. It is ironic, with all that has been spent on the military and weapons, one backwater nation can take us out with 1 relatively small EMP nuke. In any nuke attack the US would have to destroy every single incoming warhead, we would have to be right 100% of the time, an enemy needs only 1 to get through, they need to be right only 1% of the time.

The odds are not in our favor.

Or just the sun being hyperactive on a day when the earth's magnetic poles are in a weak state and majority of planet facing the sun if not entire planet goes down to no malicious intent but mother nature. Glad we are finally moving some of our major distribution transformer manufacturing back U.S. soil. Post grid melt we won't be waiting for China to feel like shipping transformers if they rebuild anytime soon.

Have always had a healthy respect for mother earth and our own corner of the galaxy. Look at Hawaii right now... I see California earthquakes (not to mention politics) have taken shelter in steam vents all over the Cascades so know Washington State and Oregon could bust open anytime, been all over Yellowstone in summer and winter and on both sides and something about acid boiling out of the ground just isn't right, Bismark in January and know that will suck without power as not many trees to burn when -40 with 40 MPH winds, northeast bleeding heart liberals, noreasters, costal hurricanes and more so feel our biggest threats are nature and ourselves. Why I have prepped for as many things as I can without dot gov resources or Bill Gates cash. Choose to live in a geological stable area away from the coast and conservative politics with Bible believing population. Also keep a keen eye on items inside a short drive from house already on trailers or that will slide on mine in first hours of an event.

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A time will come when people will not listen to accurate teachings. Instead, they will follow their own desires and surround themselves with teachers who tell them what they want to hear. 2 Timothy 4:3 G.W.T.
"If it is worth doing once...it's worth doing it a few more times to get it right." Stimpsonjcat

A bit dated but the seismic velocities are increasing. The line runs up the Hudson and out along long island sound toward Boston. Boston has one about ever 200 years. Come to think about it, all the places that have these types of events tend to have progressive liberals living there.https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2...really-big-one

Back from whacky land. Got to chat with Peter. Certain things better but a lot of resistance. Interesting discussion with Japanese military folks on Chna.
I think what I find most amazing is how the leftists are so against this country and how we as a nation put up with it. They are really nuts and are very willing to die for the cause as long as it takes us out.
Just an example of the logic and "expertise".https://www.newsmax.com/peterpry/doe.../17/id/860908/

This horror story doesn’t need zombies or genetically altered mosquitos in order to be scary. Using data from the United States Department of Energy, the International Business Times reported in 2014 that the United States suffers more blackouts than any other developed country in the world.
Unfortunately, not much has been done since then to alleviate the system’s critical vulnerabilities.
In theory, we all understand the wisdom about not putting all our eggs in one basket, as the old-adage goes. Yet the U.S. has done just that with our U.S. power grid. Sadly, this infrastructure is failing, and compared to many other countries, the U.S. is sauntering slowly behind many other more conscientious countries, seemingly unconcerned with its poor showing.
The Grid, by Geography and Geopolitics
According to the United States Department of Energy, the American power grid is made up of three smaller grids, known as interconnections, which transport energy all over the country. The Eastern Interconnection provides electricity to states to the east of the Rocky Mountains, while the Western interconnection serves the Rocky Mountain states and those that border the Pacific Ocean.
The Texas Interconnected System is the smallest grid in the nation, and serves most of Texas, although small portions of the Lone Star state benefit from the other two grids.
And if you’re wondering why Texas gets a grid of its own, according to the Texas Tribune they have their own grid “to avoid dealing with the feds.” Now that’s true survivalist savvy—in theory.

When you look at the layout of the grid above, it’s easy to see that a single grid going offline would disrupt a huge segment of North America.
Wait—make that all of North America.
To give it to you straight, our national electrical grid works as an interdependent network. This means that the failure of any one part would trigger the borrowing of energy from other areas. Whichever grid attempts to carry the extra load would likely be overtaxed, as the grid is already taxed to near max levels during peak hot or cold seasons.
The aftermath of a single grid going down could leave millions of residents without power for days, weeks or longer depending on the scope of the failure.
So although on the surface it looks like the U.S. has wisely put its eggs into three separate baskets for safer keeping, the U.S. has in essence, lined up our baskets so that if one were to drop, or if the bottom were to fall out, the eggs from basket #1 would fall into basket #2. Which would break from the load, falling into basket #3—eventually scrambling all the eggs. Sorry, Texas.
When multiple parts of the grid fail at the same time, it’s not necessarily more catastrophic—the catastrophe just happens more quickly.
According to Jon Wellinghoff, chairman of the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, in an interview with USA Today, “You have a very vulnerable system that will continue to be vulnerable until we figure out a way to break it out into more distributed systems.”
Written by Julianne Geiger a couple of years ago. This is why you don't need a huge EMP pulse to cascade the system ( or cyber or a ground attack at key locations ie:San Jose)

A good friend of mine is in the power business. For the last decade he has been pushing for micro grids. They are doing some projects right now in Alaska. From solar/micro turbines to software to manage it.

There’s a layer of 300 million-year-old rock under Interstate 95 that’s capable of killing the lights from Washington to Boston and beyond the next time the sun erupts in all its fury.
Sound far-fetched? Perhaps. But not to scientists. A solar storm is now viewed as enough of a risk in fact that grid operators across North America are working on plans to respond to just such a disturbance. And a draft of a soon-to-be-published U.S. Geological Survey report pinpoints the Eastern Seaboard as one of the areas most in danger.

Quote:

That’s because this Paleozoic-era rock doesn’t let the energy from a major geomagnetic storm -- a once-in-a-100-years kind of event -- pass through it but instead acts as a backstop that sends the surge back up above the ground for a second shot at causing mayhem.

90 men, working together, with a simple plan, can shut down the whole of the USA inside 5 to 10 days.

Am surprised every single day it has not been done yet.

Of the nations which have the capability right now to disable our grid remotely, I do not think any of them have a business case to do so. And they have not offered to rent those services to the nations who think they have a moral and religious duty to do so.

__________________All I'm really asking for here is a knife that will not jam and a unicorn that doesn't need sharpening. Will_PowerIt's been my experience that all you really need to harvest a deer is a car. They come right through the windshield just fine.357rossThat poop is priceless.MFC

We are dancing on the head of a pin. Sooner or later it will unwind. Of the folks I talk too, they believe AI maybe the way out of the immediate problem because AI can operate in solving multi-dimensional issues. I am aware of one problem that had been worked on for 3 years by PhDs and two guys with basic BS degrees used an AI program and solved the problem in 2 weeks. Like EMP, will we act upon the solutions and will the cure be worse than the disease.

Of the nations which have the capability right now to disable our grid remotely, I do not think any of them have a business case to do so. And they have not offered to rent those services to the nations who think they have a moral and religious duty to do so.

Its not just the grid I'm concerned about, far simpler than that.

Everything we have in this country moves by truck at some point, this country is VAST in size, impossible to guard our roads.

Shut down the trucking industry, even just slow down the movement of all goods, people will begin to die in short order, but the resulting panic is what does the real damage.

90 men, 90 targets, drivers, in 90 different locations, at the exact same minute of a chosen day, the trucking industry of this whole country shuts down before midnight hits.

Figure five to 7 days, to organize armed convoys, store shelves will be empty, people will be hungry, power plants out of whatever they need to run, electrical grid shutdowns, computers not fixed when broken, fuel shortages, or simply no fuel, people are not eating, water plants fail, no chemicals, no electricity, people can't get to work, where they work can't move their products, commerce comes to a stand still.

Once panic sets in, all of the old hatreds boil over, people begin shooting at one another, hospitals become war zones, police can't handle issues on a good day, with a small problem, with everyplace in the toilet, they go home to protect their own families, things then escalate out of all control.

Why 90 drivers in 90 different locations, psychological warfare.
We get one terror attack, all resources are rushed into that one area, with 90 connected attacks, which will shut down the whole transportation system, as in, mama won't let her husband go drive them trucks, if he's going to get shot, the system stops working.

I'd expect the military to be called in, but hell, there are not enough trained truck drivers, and even if impressed into duty, would take a week or 10 days to ramp up the system, and by then, all hell has already broke out everywhere in this country.

300,000,000 plus Americans, 5,000,000 GI's, another 300,000 police, no one can control 300,000,000 hungry, scared, thirsty, panicked people, no one!

Three days of food in peoples home, on average, maybe one day of water, just in time stocking of stores, as in, no truck tonight at Safeway, no food tomorrow, panic takes over, store runs, police can't cope, banks shutdown, people stop going to work, just pure panic of the masses takes over and it all comes troubling down.

Wait 24 hours, use those 90 men to shoot up everything not protected in the power grid, which is a ton of stuff.

Add in, how people react to stress, how they panic, hell, hit the communication systems, watch what happens when the "news" is only being put out by the feds, the nutters would use that action to become even more major nutters and we have more than our fair share of them folks.

Martial law would have to be declared, and that right there would increase the panic in the streets, set off tons of, don't thread on me folks, which would call for an even stronger response, which would piss off even more people on the fringes.

Our country, this mostly peaceful, working high status national community, fully functional today, can be all gone within 24 hours.

We are now and have always been only 9 meals away from anarchy.

As an old survivalist, I asked myself one day, how would I shut down this country?

The answer was, 90 men, in 90 different locations.
Pretty simple actually.
With an interdependent country such as we have today.
Knock out one leg, whole thing falls apart from its own weight.
Nearly overnight and not a damn thing can be done once it slips into chaos.

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You may find me dead in a ditch one day, on my knees, but I will be up to my waist in spent rifle brass.

There are other choke points also. Physical and electronic. That is why if push comes to shove, a war will not have to be firearms. What she discusses is true. As systems grow in complexity they become more vulnerable and a cascade can be induced easily. The San Jose attack is a prime example of a test run. As has been said it is amazing it hasn't happened yet.

"watch what happens when the "news" is only being put out by the MSM"
FIFY

True, they would do their part to create pure panic among the masses, 100% for sure they would.

Last few days, nearly all of them have been screaming Trump is Hitler, death camps on the southern borders, nursing babies being ripped from the arms of their mothers, yea, the American press would have a field day with a real emergency, creating even more panic and chaos.

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You may find me dead in a ditch one day, on my knees, but I will be up to my waist in spent rifle brass.

There are other choke points also. Physical and electronic. That is why if push comes to shove, a war will not have to be firearms. What she discusses is true. As systems grow in complexity they become more vulnerable and a cascade can be induced easily. The San Jose attack is a prime example of a test run. As has been said it is amazing it hasn't happened yet.

Yep, the "Commander Scott" analogy.

The more super the toilet, the easier it is to muck up the plumbing.

Third world countries might not even notice, but 1st world countries, will destroy themselves if one leg is pulled out from under the table.

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You may find me dead in a ditch one day, on my knees, but I will be up to my waist in spent rifle brass.

The longer we go with more and more advanced technology, more nodes, more connections, more complex interconnectedness, the more minor of an event it will take to tip the system into cascading failure.

Plan accordingly. Live simply.

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"Barbarism is the natural state of mankind. Civilization is unnatural. It is a whim of circumstance. And barbarism must always ultimately triumph." Robert E. Howard

The longer we go with more and more advanced technology, more nodes, more connections, more complex interconnectedness, the more minor of an event it will take to tip the system into cascading failure.

Plan accordingly. Live simply.

Be well armed too!

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You may find me dead in a ditch one day, on my knees, but I will be up to my waist in spent rifle brass.

90 men, working together, with a simple plan, can shut down the whole of the USA inside 5 to 10 days.

Am surprised every single day it has not been done yet.

Yes, the deal is NO ONe wants to come off as crazy/premature/jumping the gun, etc. I Think. OR there are not enough Men who ARE willing to walk away from all they have earned in life? Ready to give their Life?

No one wants civil War But I Believe it is coming and not that far away, Gun CONTROL Crap will start it is My hit .

Georgia Power is now leasing whole house surge protectors for $9.95 per month. Installs at your meter and includes $5,000 or $50,000 of equipment insurance with no deductible and fairly sure it's $5,000 from memory. It covers most damage one would have without filing an insurance claim and if exceeded $5,000 your homeowners deductible is covered plus some of the damage. We are on the waiting list.

Don't know if it's related but three crews came by house in stages this week and excavated the first four feet of power pole ground rod and connection then added a second rod. They inspected the pole, sprayed with some chemical and wrapped the four feet they excavated with some type of rubber membrane and backfilled. Third crew installed devices power worker could insert steps that would get him to the steps that start at about twelve feet if didn't have a ladder, inspected all the steel rungs replacing two. Final crew checked transformer, fuses and top pole along with insulators.

This is second time have seen them do this at house since owned and seen them do same at work at least four times. They drive new inspection tags and move on. Hope to have our new whole house surge protector and tech rep had to consult with engineer to determine if their whole house surge protection and my whole house system installed at breaker panel would create some sort of unbalanced situation. They took model number of my surge protector and called me back three days later saying would not be a problem just give me an extra layer of defence from a power impulse. Mentioned to rep had a halo ground system with over a dozen ground rods with phone, cable and all systems feeding into house attached along with their own surge protectors and said engineer wanted to know if I was an EE. They are not offering for commercial three phase customers yet.

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A time will come when people will not listen to accurate teachings. Instead, they will follow their own desires and surround themselves with teachers who tell them what they want to hear. 2 Timothy 4:3 G.W.T.
"If it is worth doing once...it's worth doing it a few more times to get it right." Stimpsonjcat